Artistic Concept a First for Namibia

By Frederick Philander WINDHOEK The German-based Namibian visual artist, Uli Aschenborn, is to hold his first solo exhibition next Friday at the Namibia National Art Gallery. “Twenty works will be on display for the public to buy at prices ranging between N$3 000 and N$9 000,” said soft-spoken Aschenborn, a professor in computer science, technical drawing, mathematics and structural analysis-CAD at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany. “I still have my roots solidly grounded in Namibia and often return to the country to visit family and get inspired by the Namibian landscapes,” said Aschenborn in an Art/Life interview this week. He and his sister, Hannelise, creatively take after their world-renowned late father, Dieter Aschenborn, who passed away in 2002. “It took me a full year to complete the works to be exhibited under the title, Morph, on 11 August. It’s a new style of painting, in which images change, that I have developed during a tedious creative process on my own,” the artist, who has previously exhibited at his sister’s private gallery in the capital Kendzia, said. On display will be paintings, turning sculptors, lamps and optical sculptors. “After the Windhoek exhibition it will be taken to Aachen in Germany for another public display. Presently I am also busy writing a book on my family as artists. It will include my own works, that of my grandpa and of my late father. I am confident that I will get a publisher that would be interested in publishing the work,” he said. Works for next week’s exhibition can already be viewed on the artist’s website: htt://art.aschenborn.de